Martha "Marty" Gessler was an agent with the FBI's Los Angeles field office. She was single, lived in Sherman Oaks, and had two dogs. She was nearly 6 ft. tall and weighed 140 lbs. She was strong and trained in self-defense. She typically wore her weapon in a holster on her hip. Initially she was a field agent in the bank robbery division where she worked with Eleanor Wish in the late 1980s. They were the only two women in the unit at that time. Their most high-profile case was the capture of the "Two Step" bandit.